Sesame Jaggery Chocolate Chip Cookies | Til Gur Cookies

Sesame Jaggery Chocolate Chip Cookies | Til Gur Cookies

Make the Lohri or Sankranti Festival special by baking these amazing Sesame Jaggery Chocolate Chip Cookies, a version of the Indian festive Til Gur sweets. Made with whole wheat flour, jaggery powder and toasted sesame seeds, these are the soft baked winter special cookies!

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Coming up this time on the blog, I have these special festival cookies for Lohri. Lohri is a cultural festival celebrated in North India on January 13th. It signifies the end of winter and also welcoming of sun’s journey towards the Northern Hemisphere (more about the same on this Wiki page).

Singing Sundar Mundriye (the lohri song), and eating winter special food items like Gachak/Gajak (Chikki) made from jaggery and peanuts, popcorn, peanuts and rewari (small balls made of sesame seeds and jaggery powder), along with dancing around bonfire can be seen at every nook and corner. People also throw the popcorns and peanuts and other sweets into the bonfire to mark the end of the year. Til Gud also has a lot of festive significance at Sankranti all over India, especially the Til Gur Ladoos.

This year though, Lohri will be a little different because of the farmer’s protest going on in India. I hope the farmers get their fair share of rights, and they are able to enjoy their harvest festival again soon. Also, I hope this new year 2021 brings happiness and peace all over the world, and we are able to find a solution to the global pandemic called COVID-19 as well!

So, here I am reliving all those childhood Lohri/Sankranti memories, by making my own version of these yummy sweet treats made of sesame and jaggery.

How do we make these Sesame Jaggery Chocolate Chip Cookies?

Here is a simple step-by-step process explaining how the Til Gud cookies are made. To make a more kid-friendly version, I have added chocolate chips and vanilla extract to these soft Til Gur cookies. But, if you want to give it a better festive touch, feel free to skip both vanilla and chocolate chips.

Also, feel free to double the quantity of sesame seeds for the extra crunch, the cookies however, are soft baked cookies.

Method (Step by step – with Pictures)

• If you don’t already have the “Toasted” sesame seeds, then toast the sesame seeds in a skillet or pan on low medium flame till fragrant and light brown. Keep them aside for later use. Mix the butter and jaggery powder till everything is completely blended. Add in the egg and vanilla extract to the above and again mix everything together.

• Mix whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice and 2 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds to the wet mixture and swirl everything together to form an even cookie dough.

• Add in the chocolate chips and Tahini (sesame seed paste) to the cookie dough and mix again. Put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

• Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Take around 1 – 2 tablespoon of cookie dough in your hands, form a ball and flatten a little. Sprinkle all the cookies with the remaining (1/2 tablespoon) sesame seeds and pat them a little on top. I was able to make 15 cookies with the prepared dough. Bake the cookies for around 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, or till you see creases on top of the cookies. The cookies will be soft to touch, but once cooled, they will be fine. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool for at least 5-10 minutes.

• The Healthy & Soft Sesame Cookies are now ready to be served warm, or these can also be stored in an air-tight container for around a week.

Substitutions & Tips

• Whole Wheat Flour – Feel free to replace whole wheat flour with the same quantity of all-purpose flour. If the cookie dough feels a little loose, add ~ 1/4th cup more of all-purpose flour.
• Sweetener – You can even use unrefined cane sugar in place of jaggery powder. These alternatives provide healthier form of sweetener to the cookies. But, if none of these is available, you can even go ahead and use regular white sugar.
• Tahini – Feel free to skip adding Tahini (sesame seeds paste) in the recipe, it is completely optional.
• Egg – To make the recipe eggless, I would advise to replace the egg with either of these two options:
  • Chia Seed Gel (Mix 1 Tbsp powdered Chia seeds with 3 Tbsp water, and let it soak for 5 minutes)
  • Flax Seed Gel (Mix 1 Tbsp powdered Flax seeds with 3 Tbsp water, and let it soak for 5 minutes)

• To give the recipe a complete Lohri/Sankranti festive touch, you can completely skip adding the vanilla extract and chocolate chips (I have made a more kid-friendlier version of the Til Gur Cookie recipe by adding those).
• Also, feel free to double up the quantity of toasted sesame seeds and Tahini, for the extra sesame flavor kick in each bite of the cookie.

NOTE – For eggless version, powdered flax/chia seeds are preferred. But if not available, you can use whole seeds for soaking!

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Also, continuing the tradition, here comes the 60th recipe under My Julie & Julia Project. For those who don’t know, I had started this project under which I had planned to post 100 recipes from my kitchen by the end of the year 2020. So, this is the Recipe #60 for you all.

Also, do subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch this recipe, and many more similar recipes. You can even connect with me on Facebook and Instagram.

If you like this recipe, do check out these festive healthyish Diwali Muffins as well. For now, let’s get going to the healthy and soft Sesame Jaggery Cookies recipe!